I'm planning to stop by the motel Wednesday eve and see who has made it in. I'm working Thursday just down the street a block at Young's TrueValue Hardware. If any come in during the day stop in and give a yell! Otherwise I'll be around the motel that evening. All you guys.......ride safe!

JF - Sorry to hear about the drop. Heal up and glad there weren't any serious injuries!

Meanwhile, ctrider - those are all good numbers to find and ride! I intend to hit some of those myself! I didn't intend to lead anyone to believe they should follow 250 to the end. Doesn't it go to Ohio?

JFSlater; sorry about the mishap, hope you & bike are feeling better soon. G will miss you (and your food). Maybe the best thing is getting back on the horse? Did the new helmet get sacrificed? Big Bird need any stitches? Hoping all the best for you, rain or shine, .....

I'm so looking forward to this. New fluids in the trans and final drive last weekend, new gloves and new helmet today (thanks Iron Pony) and the opportunity to meet old friends and some new as well. Wayne, I'm really excited to meet you finally. We've never met even though I've known of and about you for so long. Thanks for putting this all together. Jeff (Biffs_R) and I should arrive sometime mid to late afternoon on Thursday - if not, we'll arrive later or earlier. Until then. . ..

Looking at posts, Vann has nearly 8 times as many as I have. Impressive Sir!

I executed a mini-highside and came to rest on top of the bike, bits of windshield scattered all over the road. New pains reveal themselves everyday, so even driving for 5.5 hours is kind out of the picture. Anyway, overall I'm pretty lucky, considering what some folks on this board have been through. It's a blessing, blah blah, still sucks I can't hang out with the finest group of folks on the Internet.

A bit of road rash could've been prevented with better gloves, so I think I'll be moving into the "full gauntlet" club now. Wishing you all good and safe riding, wish I could be there.

Oh, and there's one more room now available in the Hojo, if anyone's looking.

I'll be leaving Raleigh very early Friday morning. I'll be headed toward U.S. 60, the nearest route into the mountains. After that, I'll find a long way to get to Staunton, probably on U.S. 250. I'll likely include a couple of county roads. Vann, be looking for my black Ducati Road King. We'll probably be on some of the same roads.

Johnny, crashing sucks and the injuries can be a lifetime reminder. Its starting to worry me more now since I've turned 68 two weeks ago and have no desire to make my wonderful, loving wife permanently sad and alone . . . so the Bashes will be less of a crazy death wish road race and more of an almost legal fun ride. It's too bad you'll miss this Bash, it's most likely going to be the biggest one so far. We'll take lots of pics . . . I gotta new CoolPix L830 camera that takes excellent low light pics and HD movies, so ya'all will be informed.

FYI: The early forecast a few days ago said 70% rain, but now it is down to 16% Thurs, 25% Fri, 44% Sat and 40% Sun. Thinking early on it would be raining, I planned on using the GS911 to reset trouble codes and doing a few freebee TB synchs under cover of an outdoor hallway. I even packed the water stick and the new bottle manometer that finally got constructed yesterday. A bottle manometer is needed for TB synchs that are so far out-of-adjustment that the H20 water stick would get it's water suctioned out in 1 second. The bottle manometer allows one bottle to fill up, then just air bubble harmlessly until the correct adjustment is made. The pickle jars got changed to taller jelly jars and finally to a pair of really tall 750 ml wine bottles in a handcrafted wood frame. Total cost (wine was used for another purpose) is for the 10 feet of plastic hose and 10 wood screws . . . well under $4. Even if it does not rain there will still be time to do a few OilHead TB synchs, so everyone can see how exacting it is compared to a TwinMax or any other synch tool.

Cyclerob, I'll volunteer to be a test subject for the TB sync. I don't have any feeling that it may be out but it hasn't been checked or adjusted in at least 5 years. Don't have any idea if my bike has provisions for a diagnostic hookup. Worst case, I'll be an interested observer for someone else's sync.

Just did a ride by the motel on my lunch break. I see I think Daryl Stamp's vehicle and trailer. Saw another Honda with cases last nite so folks are arriving! I'm working till 5:30 so I'll drop by afterwards. Be sure to pick up a packet (clerk hopefully will remember) when you check in. Later!!

Juvy and I just checked in at the Knights Inn in Chilhowie after a long beautiful day of riding north. The last 2 hours were the best. Got off I-26 at Johnson City and picked up Tenn 91 at Elizabethton. Stopped in Shady Valley for a quick break and came on up 133 to Damascus then VA 91 to I-81 and Chilhowie. Juvy survived! But Phil is not is such good shape. A good night's sleep and I'll be ready for the day riding tomorrow. Might stop in at Paint Blank and see if I run into Vann.

Another great Bash almost in the books. Heading home to North Georgia in a few hours and it looks like cloudy, rainy weather most of the way today. I'm judging an interstate slab ride is the safer option in the rain. If my back holds out we should make it home to Woodstock by late afternoon/early evening. If it doesn't we'll stop somewhere along the way and rest another night.